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Small boat, big Marlin bite 25-03-16


Aerialangler

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First post - late report

SPOILER- (Maybe first and long post because we caught a Marlin)

It's been hard lining up a day with my wife's cousin between work, kids etc but finally everything was in our favour for Friday the 25 of March - Only two aboard all up

We have been heavily into gamefishing this year despite the fact that my old centre console 4.8 meter dehaviland isn't really built for it. We just pick the days and have all the safety precautions in place.

We headed out fairly early, got to Drummoyne boat ramp about 5:30am

It's wasn't too busy

Back the boat down, and for the first time motor doesn't fire

After a few fuel line and tank changes and before the next boat lines up it finally goes......relief . It's a trusty Yamaha

We get out and head for the planned location

12 mile reef. We pull up about 3 kms short because the water changes and the temp rises to 25. We see bait fish jumping too

We decide to put the lures in.

We can run 5 rods which is not bad for a small boat- no outriggers- just some well placed rod holders

It's 7am now and we run the lures for ten minutes and then that sound..... Do I have to say what it is? Start with Z

The short corner tld 30 is buckled and line is flying off, and it's sounds a bit too fast for our liking. But I have to get the other rods in while my mate fights

Then we have to chase it cause the line department doesn't look good

No jumps and the fish is down, but about 5 mins in it jumps, looks like a 80-100kg blue

We panic sort of and adrenalin is all over the place.

As we are fighting my mate says is that the lure? Yes coming back up the line is the two skirts..... But the fish is about 200 meters out.

Somehow the fish had smashed the skirts over the top of the lure head and are coming back up the line- black magic- tuna terror

Here some pics of the lure and skirts.....

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Tension is high as many will be aware happens

Anyway 15 mins in I mention the we have to get this fish in and my mate puts a little more pressure on the fish which is down deep. And then that moment we all hate. Line goes lose winding increases to a high speed wind... What no! The fish is off.....

Disappointment all round.

That's fishing though.

We persevere reset the lures bar the one that was destroyed

And work the same area

Only 20 mins later the short corner goes again

It's my turn to take the rod...

This one makes itself known straight away on hook up. Jumping. Another Marlin, this one a little smaller and more aerial than the last

Maybe a black about 80kg

This fight is short, while my mate brings the rods in I hold on and wind

But to no avail, I see the lure fly out of the mouth and go about 15 meters in the air....

It's thrown the hook. We are disappointed once again but we can't believe this spot is producing so quickly. And bait is still jumping.

Pic of dropped lure....

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So we do it all again, we keep working the area.

Back and forth. But after about 45mins -1hr but no more luck.

Then we make a call to go to 12 mile and try (we can always come back) it's only 2km away anyway. So we keep trolling out. We get to the rise and pass once, then back around.

And now it happens.... The big reel goes. Long corner, biggest zacatac lure we've got.

Pic of lure.....

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And I'm sure many have been in this zone before. You and your mate, mouth open, looking, as a big blue is half in half out thrashing the lure around heading across the lure spread. Time slows. We just can't speak. We just look. We are in awe

Then it's show time. He grabs the rod. I keep the boat going. It screams.

I wind in one rod and my mate screams we need to chase this fish! Lines running out!! Shimano Tiagra 50w spooled with 24 kg moi moi

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We guess the fish ran about 500m at the start.

We follow it. With the others lines still out. Stupid maybe, but we didn't get any tangles. We get closer and it heads deep. So I take advantage of the time and reel the other rods in.

We are calmer now. We have lost two fish. We know this could be another. But we just hold on. We hold on for a long time.

We start talking about what to do when it comes up. What to do when and if it gets close to the boat.

But we know that it's not a guarantee that we will see this fish.

Time gets on. We are getting line back occasionally but then it will run again.

No more jumps. It's deep

The fight endures. Into the hours now.

We are inexperienced in fighting fish. We wonder why it's taking so long. We try different angles etc to get line back.

My mate is exhausted

He offers the rod to me to help out

I get on the rod for nearly an hour of tug of war.

This seems hopeless. I start to wonder wether this fish is tail wrapped.... And maybe nearly dead.

Three hours in we decide that yes this fish is gone. So we pretty much have to winch a dead weight up. Half an hour later it's up and we are sad and happy to see it.

It's impossible to lift into the boat.

We don't want to waste this life and fish so we attach a rope to the tail and tow it home from about 20kms out.

Pic of fish up and towing home....b8f43dcde834225b421f98c08497e6ee.jpg

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It is cloudy so we think that the fish may stay in reasonable condition.

We arrive back in the harbour and decide we want to try and put it into the boat from the beach. We pull into Gibsons beach near Watson bay and attempt it. Too heavy. We can't even lift one end of it.

We attach it back to the rope and decide to go to a more secluded spot and take fillets of it to put in our iced esky. We get some pictures and get a lot of massive good fillets off it. We didn't waste much

Then we decide to tow the rest of it outside and say goodbye.

Pics of fish

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http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160328/27a249b9b57d1451da8f6eaec355c8c0.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160328/d12616ef5042fd95fae390a552324308.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160328/7a10466afe9d1708dc2282f2c4e31dd7.jpg

Remnants of stomach.....

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160328/55aa59bf988384d2e69c5f21b3c74d35.jpg

I'm sorry if this is disturbing to a few reading but we didn't have many choices to make

We've asked a few and they've mentioned tail wrapping a fish happens and even sometimes fish suffer a heart attack when stressed.

The fish came up well hooked in the jaw and not tail wrapped .

We hope this doesn't happen again as our plan was to release it.

Thanks for your patience if you got this far with the story.

Regards, Kent

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited by Aerialangler
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Great write up and what an awesome day on the water.

Sadly a bitter sweet win.

Congrats on your first...

A little unusual running the Bart candy on short corner.?

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

Edited by NaClH2OK9
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Great write up and what an awesome day on the water.

Sadly a bitter sweet win.

Congrats on your first...

A little unusual running the Bart candy on short corner.?

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

Yeh it was actually short rigger but on the rod holder wide

Still not 100% where which lures are best

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Yeh it was actually short rigger but on the rod holder wide

Still not 100% where which lures are best

From my very limited experience. I'd have thought this was a shotgun lure.

But... It picked up a fish!!!! :)

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

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What an awesome fish to catch and on such wrong boat for it to, a shame it died but I think you did what you could have and you didn't waste it at the end, my arms were burning in sympathy just reading your story.

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Great write up and what a fantastic capture. Unfortunately, with blue marlin they will fight to the death, hence the nature of their fight! But as swordy said, you gave the fish respect. So well done to you both! :)

Cheers scratchie!!!

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Ripper read fellas!!!! Felt like i experienced the whole 3 hours with you. Very much enjoyed that post. Congrats on the first marlin and what a ripper it is. Very much a shame that it didnt make it for a safe release but as previously mentioned you did everything you could sp not your fault and hey..you got a good feed out of it.

Glad you went to a secluded beach to fillet it and had the respect to drive far out again to release the remains. Fisheries do you hard for filleting any fish on the water. Once again thanks for the post and congrats

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

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Well done guys. What a fabulous report. Felt like I was in the boat feeling your anxiety /elation, with you. Great that you paid this great fish some respect, too. You're certainly a lot gamer than I...going out into the wild blue in such a small boat and especially after it was hard to start. Good onya guys.

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Thanks for all your input into my first report and story.

Ive been a reader for a good while but havent had a real good story to put up. Hopefully I can have some more success again and I can post something else in future.

Side point: alot of people say that marlin isnt good eating. But from all reports back, many are enjoying it. Including myself- and Im not a great fish eater

Its all about not over cooking it and treating it like a good steak.

Gentle cooking has proved to be the best result.

Im aware of the high mercury in fish like this. But from what I can gather once a week is ok.

Im becoming more aware of people saying that they sometimes die on capture, therefore that is why Ive added this comment. Dont waste them. Look after the fish and it can be great table fish :)

Edited by Aerialangler
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Excellent read! You guys had a lot of luck to get three hookups.

I'm no marlin fisherman but I always find the fish you lose prepare you to tackle the one that you end up catching with calm and clear mind.

Beautiful fish, any estimate on the weight there?

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Excellent read! You guys had a lot of luck to get three hookups.

I'm no marlin fisherman but I always find the fish you lose prepare you to tackle the one that you end up catching with calm and clear mind.

Beautiful fish, any estimate on the weight there?

Hi mate

Yeh we obviously didn't weigh the fish but going by this photo we've estimated the short length to be about 2.6m. That's from lower jaw to inner tail

Some fishing sites say that a fish of that length can weigh around 140-150kg

(It was a very solid, fat fish too) 8519c146e90c3e1c81664e3b832785b7.jpg

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Nice catch. A 2.6 short length for a Blue should actually be about 160-170kg on the GFAA scale. Looking at the above photo it's not far off and she is fat. It looks about twice the size of the fella lying next to it. So if he is @80kg, you would argue it is twice his bulk. So well done on a stonker from a tinny!!

This Blue below also died on landing and went 121kg and looks a lot smaller than yours. So start the bickering....

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post-767-0-89546600-1459508370_thumb.jpg

Edited by Phar Cue
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Nice catch. A 2.6 short length for a Blue should actually be about 160-170kg on the GFAA scale. Looking at the above photo it's not far off and she is fat. It looks about twice the size of the fella lying next to it. So if he is @80kg, you would argue it is twice his bulk. So well done on a stonker from a tinny!!

This Blue below also died on landing and went 121kg and looks a lot smaller than yours. So start the bickering....

Thanks for the pics

That's a good fish too

Maybe around the same size or a tad smaller

Gives us an idea of what ours could have been

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  • 2 weeks later...

Firstly , I would like to congratulate you on your first marlin, always a very memorable experience, and its good to see that it didn't go to waste. The first blue that I tangled with was on 24kg stand up gear and I was fighting the fish for 5hrs & 15 mins on new years eve 2013. I couldn't get the fish to the boat as for the last 1.5 hrs it was 30 metres below the boat and wouldn't come up. I tried everything I could and I ended up increasing the drag and the line broke. I was asleep that night by 8pm, completely exhausted. The second fish was about 2 weeks later and I put my mate on strike while I cleared the rods/ drove and traced the fish ( there was only 2 of us on the boat, and my mate had no idea what he was in for).It took about 2hrs to get the fish to the boat, and it ended up being tail wrapped and came up dead. This left a very sour taste in my mouth and I almost gave up gamefishing. Since then I have caught a few marlin and been involved with the capture of many more both on my boat and as a crew member on a local boat in Coffs Harbour. I don't profess to be an expert by any means, and I still have a lot to learn but I have learnt a few things.Firstly you do get the odd marlin dying and it is an unfortunate consequence of the sport. Secondly to try to get a stubborn blue up to the boat, where he stays deep and wont come up then try to change the line angle by driving off the fish and then if he comes up then drive back to him.I also find that having the boat positioned down current of the fish also helps sometimes as it causes the fish to swim , expending more energy which can shorten the fight time, as opposed to having the boat up current of the fish, as when this happens the fish can just sit in the current and still get water through its gills. I have also found from crewing on a local game boat that using 37kg gear helps on the blues as the drag is preset to 12kgs of pressure in the strike setting as opposed to 8 kgs of pressure on 24 kg gear. This tends to greatly shorten the fight time, which puts less stress on the fish. If using 24kg gear then try to put a mark on the reel where 10kgs of drag pressure is and even 12 kgs of drag pressure is so that you can push the drag up past strike knowing that you wont increase it by too much. You can also try to use the low gear on your reel to try to get the fish the last few metres to the boat.I hope this helps. It is a steep learning curve, good luck. If I can be of any further assistance then pm me

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Firstly , I would like to congratulate you on your first marlin, always a very memorable experience, and its good to see that it didn't go to waste. The first blue that I tangled with was on 24kg stand up gear and I was fighting the fish for 5hrs & 15 mins on new years eve 2013. I couldn't get the fish to the boat as for the last 1.5 hrs it was 30 metres below the boat and wouldn't come up. I tried everything I could and I ended up increasing the drag and the line broke. I was asleep that night by 8pm, completely exhausted. The second fish was about 2 weeks later and I put my mate on strike while I cleared the rods/ drove and traced the fish ( there was only 2 of us on the boat, and my mate had no idea what he was in for).It took about 2hrs to get the fish to the boat, and it ended up being tail wrapped and came up dead. This left a very sour taste in my mouth and I almost gave up gamefishing. Since then I have caught a few marlin and been involved with the capture of many more both on my boat and as a crew member on a local boat in Coffs Harbour. I don't profess to be an expert by any means, and I still have a lot to learn but I have learnt a few things.Firstly you do get the odd marlin dying and it is an unfortunate consequence of the sport. Secondly to try to get a stubborn blue up to the boat, where he stays deep and wont come up then try to change the line angle by driving off the fish and then if he comes up then drive back to him.I also find that having the boat positioned down current of the fish also helps sometimes as it causes the fish to swim , expending more energy which can shorten the fight time, as opposed to having the boat up current of the fish, as when this happens the fish can just sit in the current and still get water through its gills. I have also found from crewing on a local game boat that using 37kg gear helps on the blues as the drag is preset to 12kgs of pressure in the strike setting as opposed to 8 kgs of pressure on 24 kg gear. This tends to greatly shorten the fight time, which puts less stress on the fish. If using 24kg gear then try to put a mark on the reel where 10kgs of drag pressure is and even 12 kgs of drag pressure is so that you can push the drag up past strike knowing that you wont increase it by too much. You can also try to use the low gear on your reel to try to get the fish the last few metres to the boat.I hope this helps. It is a steep learning curve, good luck. If I can be of any further assistance then pm me

Thanks for taking the time to offer some XP and some tips REDDIE. Some of the ideas I will try next time if I have a lucky day again.....

I dont know if I will ever have the 37kg gear though in the near future.

We heard on the radio yesterday that someone had a big big blue on way out past browns. Theirs was a 4hrs plus fight on 24kg. And they had an 82 year old man on the rod.

They had it to the boat multiple times apparently. I didnt quite get the end/full story but I think they got it to the boat, someone got a cut hand and the fish got away full of energy!!!

I heard them say 300kg plus and the guy in the flybridge got wet from the fight :o

Be good to hear the full story one day. Not sure on boat name

Edited by Aerialangler
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